Grasping new technology really isn’t my thing, but I think I’m warming up to an AI assistant that my husband put in the living room.

As you may have guessed, her name is Alexa.

We’ve had devices in the house for well more than a year, but they’re now functioning devices and not just gizmos that came as a bonus with our Ring doorbells or security cameras.

I’ve only interacted with the one in the living room, and I’m told the one in my husband’s office is more advanced or does more. I’m not really sure, as there’s no lost love for technology with me.

For now, I’m OK with the speaker-looking device that sits harmlessly on the table and lights up when it hears its, or her, name.

And in the beginning, I ignored the other woman in the house entirely. Why would I want or need to talk to this device?

My husband, though, would ask her the occasional question with me present, like what’s the temperature in whatever city the Eagles were playing, and what the weather would be like for the game.

Of course, he loves a good football game in the snow.

I, on the other hand, am content to Google the weather on my cellphone, which is always within reach. Again, why ask Alexa something when I could find it out myself?

A turning point for me came when he installed the “smart switches” for our outdoor lights and front porch.

With these smart switches, we could ask Alexa to turn the lights on or off without going to the front landing or down into the garage to flip another switch manually.

But again, my husband also set up those lights on a timer, so they come on at dusk and go off before bed. This pretty much eliminated the need for talking to Alexa for the lights.

But there was a glitch. He set up the lights at the end of October, and I pointed out that we probably didn’t want them to come on for Halloween, unless we planned on doling out candy to 200 or 300 children.

We were absolutely not prepared for that this past Halloween.

So, he set the lights to come on every day, but Friday, which was All Hallows Eve. They continued not to come on Fridays because we kept forgetting to change that setting.

So, Alexa finally had a purpose in my mind.

I could ask her to turn the lights on and off one day a week. Convenient, yes, but necessary … probably not? I could have run downstairs and flipped switches, right?

Then, one Friday afternoon, we went out grocery shopping, and unexpectedly needed to stop at a friend’s home to help her with a problem.

My husband got on his cellphone to the cable company to get a technician to come out, because it wasn’t something he could fix.

I decided to run home with the groceries, which by now had been in the vehicle for about three hours. I drove into the garage, unloaded the bags and then started walking up the stairs.

We never expected to be out that long and hadn’t left any lights on upstairs. I took two steps up into the darkness burdened with bags and realized I couldn’t see or grab the handrail to guide me.

Unsure of my footing, I stopped, and said, “Alexa, turn on the front lights.”

And light from the front porch spilled through the sidelight, lighting up the landing ahead of me. After giving silent praise to God in that moment, I also instinctively thanked Alexa.

I don’t remember what she said in response. But it was the first of several conversations I’ve had with her since.

Yes, I am now talking to her. Not full conversations like Pete Davidson has in the Alexa commercials, but I’ll ask simple questions like why did my homemade bread turn out dense?

And I’ll ask follow-up questions, because I know I followed my recipe correctly and she can’t be right. But she might be, because the bread is currently winning this culinary contest. (Bread 3, Kelly 0).

I don’t argue with her. That would be a little too much. But I have warmed up to having and using Alexa, even though it’s still no love affair.

We do have to whisper her name when in earshot, because she’s always listening. She tells us she’s not listening and has even apologized for seeming to eavesdrop on our conversations.

That’s the part of having an AI assistant I haven’t warmed up to.

After all, I’ve seen the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”